Banks’ Legal Tab Still Running Higher

The legal tab for credit-crisis and mortgage related settlements at the six largest U.S. banks by assets has risen 62% in nine months to over $107 billion, according to new data from SNL Financial.

The tab matches an October projection from the Wall Street Journal that added estimates by Bernstein Research for remaining legal exposure at three of the largest banks to data from SNL showing that the six largest U.S. banks had agreed to more than $66 billion in credit-crisis and mortgage-related settlements since 2010.

One big legal issue still hanging over the Charlotte, N.C. lender is a settlement with the Justice Department that could cost it many billions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Bank of America is offering $13 billion to settle civil probes by the DOJ and a number of states into the bank’s alleged handling of shoddy mortgages. That figure isn’t included in SNL’s overall $107 billion number.

In addition to the settlements, SNL’s analysts included the amounts of loans previously sold that have been repurchased.